The following description of downtown New Orleans was posted about an hour ago from the Interdictor blog, the author of which is securing a building in downtown New Orleans. The description sounds as if it is coming straight out of a scene from The Road Warrior:

“Situation is critical.
I’m not leaving, so stop asking. I’m staying. I am staying until this shitstorm has blown itself out. Period. End of discussion.
Now for some updates:
1. Been too busy to debrief the police officer, so that will come later. Low priority now.
2. Buses loading people up on Camp Street to take refugees to Dallas, or so the word on the street (literally) is.
3. Dead bodies everywhere: convention center, down camp street, all over.
4. National Guard shoving water off the backs of trucks. They’re just pushing it off without stopping, people don’t even know it’s there at first — they drop it on the side in debris, there’s no sign or distribution point — people are scared to go near it at first, because the drop points are guarded by troops or federal agents with assault rifles who don’t let people come near them, which scares people off. It is a mess. When people actually get to the water, they are in such a rush to get it that one family left their small child behind and forget about him until Sig carried him back to the family.
It’s raining now and I guess that’s a relief from the heat. It’s hot as hell down there in the sun. Crime is absolutely rampant: rapes, murders, rape-murder combinations.
I have really cut back answering IMs. Not enough time. I apologize people.
In case anyone in national security is reading this, get the word to President Bush that we need the military in here NOW. The Active Duty Armed Forces. Mr. President, we are losing this city. I don’t care what you’re hearing on the news. The city is being lost. It is the law of the jungle down here. The command and control structure here is barely functioning. I’m not sure it’s anyone’s fault — I’m not sure it could be any other way at this point. We need the kind of logistical support and infrastructure only the Active Duty military can provide. The hospitals are in dire straights. The police barely have any capabilities at this point. The National Guard is doing their best, but the situation is not being contained. I’m here to help in anyway I can, but my capabilities are limited and dropping. Please get the military here to maintain order before this city is lost.
Doing what we can, this is Outpost Crystal getting back to work.”

In another development, CNN is reporting that the town of Waveland, Mississippi — a town of 7,000 thirty-five miles east of New Orleans — has been destroyed completely. The CNN story includes a grim video that indicates that there was a huge — but still undetermined at this point — loss of life in Waveland during the storm.
Update: The Chronicle’s Eric Berger passes along this daunting description of the conditions in New Orleans from Dr. Richard Bradley, a professor at both the University of Texas Houston Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine, who is assigned to the elite Texas Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue team that was deployed to the News Orleans disaster area on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 27, a day before the hurricane hit the area.